Animation skills inside out

From illustration to digital animation, read some free content on this dynamic area

Did you know that animation is one of the most searched words on Bloomsbury Visual Arts? With a range of animated films hitting the northern hemisphere this summer, we wanted to give you access to a few of our animation resources.

New to animation? Creating the Illusion: Get Rolling With the Basic Principles of 2D Classic Animation reviews the history and foundations of animation.

Nancy Beiman has worked as a director, character designer, and animator on films including An American Tail: Fievel Goes West and Hercules. Here she gives advice on Character Development Over Time. Discover also the work of Disney legend Floyd Norman who shares his experiences working on Toy Story 2 in Playing with Toys.

Character Design in Japanese Manga, Anime, and Gaming explores some trends and styles over time. The Animator as Performer gives examples and tips on how to achieve character expressiveness and how to telegraph thought and emotion. A major element in achieving this is the eyes: “Jim Henson once got to the heart of it when he said that without eyes there is no character”. Read more in The Eyes Have It!

Digital animation has grown and developed massively over the last fifty years. A timeline of digital animation and History Of Digital Characters show this progress across films and games, allowing us some insight into what might come later.

It is not all about character though. Digital animators are working to create immersive environments too. Adding Lighting and Atmospheric Visual Effects in UE5 not only explains why lighting is so important, but also gives a step-by-step guide to doing it.

Content linked to in this blog will be free for a month after the post date.

Looking for more? Sign up to our new animation resources newsletter which will also include relevant content from other Bloomsbury sites, like the Animator's Survival Kit Animated coming soon to Bloomsbury Video Library.

Image credit: Photo by GUILLAUME SOUVANT/AFP via Getty Images